Top 3 Cheap Canon Lenses for YouTube

So what are the best and cheapest Canon lenses for making YouTube videos? In this video I’m gonna talk about my top three and some tips for using all of ’em, comin’ up.

Hey, what’s up guys? Sean here with IamKiam, helping you go further, faster in media and on this channel we do camera reviews, lighting reviews, and even lens videos just like this one. So if you’re new here, consider subscribing. And hey, at any point during this video, check out all the links in the YouTube description below. I’ll list all the lenses as well as some bonus resources and things like that. Let’s jump into the video.

So my first recommendation is the Canon 24 millimeter Pancake lens. What I love about this lens is actually what we’re shooting on right now is that 24 millimeters is a great focal length. At times, the 50 millimeter, which we’ll talk about in awhile, is too zoomed in, and so the 24 gives you a nice shot, but there’s a couple features that are awesome about it. First of all, you’ll be able to find it for about 150 dollars USD or cheaper and it has a great aperture. It’s fixed at 2.8 and what that means if you’re new to making videos is a couple things. One, when you set it to 2.8 on your DSLR, you can get the blurry background behind you where you’re in focus but you kind of have that cool look, especially depending on if you’re outside or whatnot. The other great thing about 2.8 is that it works really good in low light situations. The other thing that I love is it has an STM focusing motor and so that means that it has really smooth focusing and it’s very quiet when it focuses. So if you’re using a Canon 70D or a 80D or even a T5i or a T6i, you should have good auto-focus during video where it’ll track your face and just like this, it should be tracking my face, it might be a little bright and the audio’s kinda messed up, but it’ll just track your face the entire time, which is a super nice thing, especially if you’re like making YouTube videos. And then the last thing is that it’s really slim and it’s super light, it’s almost weightless, and so even if you wanna take it around and shoot some photos or create a couple thumbnails for your videos, I would definitely recommend the 24 millimeter, it’s kinda like a go to lens, as you can see, we’re shooting with it right now for this shot because it’s just super awesome.

So the second lens that I would recommend as the best cheap Canon lens is the Canon 50 millimeter 1.8. Now some people call this the nifty 50. It’s great because at only about 125 dollars USD or cheaper, you could pick one of these up. I recommend you do get the new one with STM. It has the stepper motor, smooth and quiet auto focusing during video, and it also has that 1.8 aperture. So the last lens was good in low light at 2.8, this one is even better at 1.8 and it’ll have even more of a blurry background and that effect that you want. The downside with this lens is that it’s very zoomed in. Now the 24 millimeter actually only works on crop sensor cameras but if you just have a 70D or any of the Rebel series, you’re gonna be good with that 24 millimeter. The 50 millimeter will work on any camera, so it’ll work on a 5D Mark II or III or a 6D or cameras that have a full frame sensor. The problem is when you put it on a Canon 70D, it’s about an 80 millimeter lens and so you just have to either plan to be really zoomed in or be really far away from the camera, so not necessarily a bad thing, good to have to create some B-roll for your videos, to create really cool looking artistic shots with depth of field where the subject or the item or the product you’re reviewing is in focus but it’s kind of blurry all around it. So, as you can see, this is really zoomed in. We didn’t adjust where I’m sitting or where the camera is at all and so this is what the 50 millimeter looks like and we actually left the aperture at 2.8. Okay so to give you an idea of what you could do with the 50 millimeters, you could do a shot like this. And so we were just shooting over there and we’re kind of on this loft area, but you do need a lot of space. Like to get this shot composition, the camera’s about 10 feet away from me and then you wanna be really far off your background to get this kinda cool blurred background. So what you’re seeing right now is the lens set to 1.8 aperture and so it creates this cool look. This is all natural lighting and so I’m just getting the window light from over here, that’s why it’s like a little bit darker, probably on this side. With low light or just natural light, you can get really, really cool shots just like this and with the STM motor, it does face tracking. And so it’s cool to be able to just turn that on and have one of the newer Canon Rebel or like a 70D or an 80D and to be able to have trustworthy face tracking. If you’re shooting by yourself, you can know that you’re gonna get that tact-sharp auto-focus with the cool background. And then for the third lens that I would recommend, it’s a little bit more pricey but it’s definitely worth it and that’s the Canon 10 to 18 wide angle lens.

Now a couple awesome things about this lens is, again, it has that STM motor, so it’ll do the good auto-tracking to your face, quiet during auto-focusing but then, also, it has a super cool focal length specifically for YouTube videos and it’s also kind of a great lens for vlogging. Casey and I used to have really popularized vlogging with the DSLR and he was using a Canon 10 to 22, but this one is more affordable, it’s about half the price, and it also has image stabilization and so that’s a huge feature meaning it’ll take out a lot of the shake if you’re doing handheld shots for vlogging. Now one of the downsides of this particular lens is that it does start at 4.5 aperture and so that’s pretty dark if you think about that last lens, that 1.8, 4.5 is like way down the spectrum, but there’s definitely some things that you can make up for it. One of the keys, if you’re shooting indoors, you definitely want some lighting in the scene. Okay so, this shot probably looks a little bit weird and I’m too far away from the camera, but this is how wide 10 millimeters is. Now we can also go to 18 and so this is what it looks like at 18 millimeters and so you have that range between 10 to 18 on this lens. So the cool thing about the 10 to 18 lens is that at 10, you can get a shot kind of like this. Now we had to set this up a little bit quicker, usually we have the camera little bit higher, but a couple things, one, when you have such a wide lens, you can put the shotgun mic right on top of the camera because you’re so close to the camera. On some of those other lenses, I’d either recommend using a boom pole like this or a Lapel mic because you’re too far away from the shotgun mic but when you are shooting with a wide lens, you can be very close to the camera. You also get that kind of distorted, cool, YouTube look and so it is a great lens for your kit. Now it does cost about 270 dollars USD but you could shop it down to around 200 dollars maybe looking for it refurbished or on the used section on Amazon.

And so definitely check out this lens, it’s also nice, you have the face tracking, and so it can track your face very quietly and doing auto-focus quickly because of the STM motor and so one of my favorite lenses for sure. So those are the three super affordable Canon lenses that I would recommend, but one thing to remember is that, really, the best lens to have is the lens that you already do have. So sometimes people hate on the kit lenses, 18 to 55 or the 18 to 135, it can still take great video, it can still take great photos. They’re great to get started with and even use no matter what level you’re at and one thing to remember when shooting videos is that actually one of the biggest difference makers for your videos isn’t actually gonna be the lens, it’s gonna be the lighting and so when you get into some of those lenses, the aperture starts a little bit dark, they’re not that great in low light, so what’s the answer? Get lighting. So I will actually link up a playlist of some different videos I’ve done on lighting. Super affordable lighting, different types of lighting set ups, so check that out on the YouTube description and on the card as well to really figure out how you can level up your lighting and maybe you don’t even need to level up your lenses yet. I think you should look through the best lenses for Canon 80D and best slow motion camera.

Question of the Day, what are the best budget super cheap Canon lenses that you recommend? I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below and remember some of the best tips and recommendations come from you, those in the IamKiam community, so definitely connect with everybody in the comment section. So thanks so much for checking out this video, definitely subscribe for more videos just like this and if you haven’t downloaded the IamKiam Video Gear Buyer’s Guide, it’s actually my list of the best recommendations for every budget level for cameras, lighting, lenses, all of the above. So you can grab that for free, I’ll link it up in the YouTube description below as well as on the YouTube card. Until next time, IamKiam is helping you go further, faster in media, keep crushing it, and we will talk soon. Blooper, blooper. Hey what’s up guys? Sean here with IamKiam helping you go further, wow, this thing. That’s weird. Is this one. That’s all you need to know, peace.